By Jack McClatchy

This week, we found yet another example of how the Democratic Party is all talk when it comes to actually playing the opposition party. First, it was rolling over and confirming almost all of President Trump’s cabinet appointments. Then, it was voting for an increase in military spending and renewing of the FISA Act that grants the NSA and Justice Department broad surveillance powers on foreigners that, all too occasionally, have American citizens surveilled. Now, it is reopening the government on a “promise” to discuss protections for DACA recipients from Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who we all know is a beacon of honesty in Washington.

A deal was struck after Democrats pressured Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to relent after rightwing media assigned blame to the Democrats for the shutdown and as #Schumershutdown was trending on Twitter.
This is just another example of Democrats having no backbone when they need it the most. A government shutdown has now become a game of chicken, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate blinked almost immediately.

Schumer points to the handshake agreement he got from McConnell as a win for Democrats, but that is all it is: a handshake agreement. Even if, defying all odds, a comprehensive immigration bill with protections for DACA recipients passed in the Senate, it is dead on arrival in the hardline House of Representatives. Again, if that bill miraculously passes through the House (note we’re stepping into a universe in which hardline Republicans suddenly sign on to comprehensive immigration reform), Trump says he will not sign it unless it had provisions for a border wall, which is a line Schumer said he would not cross.

In the end, what did Democrats get? A handshake agreement with no guarantee of passing the Senate and a bill almost guaranteed to be dead on arrival in the House.
To the Democrats’ credit, Schumer’s refusal to trade protections for DACA recipients for the farce that is the border wall (remember when Mexico was supposed to pay for it?) is a backbone that is needed from an opposition party. Senate Democrats also were not united in voting to reopen the government, as Senators such as Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) voted against the continuing resolution. Now, whether they voted against it because they truly believe in protecting DACA recipients, or to posture for their eventual 2020 runs, both remain to be seen but it is a bit of a silver lining. The consequences of the deal with Senate Republicans isn’t just a mistake in the strictly political sense. This deal has helped to deflate hopes of progressives that the Democrats would stand firm in their opposition to the Trump Administration; this loss of hope is not what the party needs right now.

It remains to be seen how badly this deal can hurt Democrats’ chance at retaking the House, the Senate, or any number of state offices around the country in November. Current polling of the generic ballot, or whether Americans are more likely to vote for a generic Democrat or Republican to Congress, has the Democrats about seven points ahead, according to Fivethirtyeight, which averages out different polls of the ballot.

The conventional wisdom right now is that the Democrats stand at the precipice of a “blue wave”, where Democrats would have sweeping victories in November thanks to an energized Democratic base and a complacent Republican base. This has credence in recent elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Alabama, but this deal could jeopardize the scale of Democrats’ victories if the base is unsure if the Democrats will actually stand against Trump in Congress. Eyes are most importantly on the House of Representatives; if the Mueller investigation into the potential Russian interference in the 2016 elections has incriminating evidence against the Trump administration, the House will vote for impeachment. Those chances are substantially lower if Democrats fail to take the House.

There’s a lot riding on how Democrats carry themselves in the next few months. They need to be incredibly careful in picking their battles, and this past week was one time they should have fought. Instead they relented. If Democrats fail to win big at a time when the conventional wisdom has them winning big, it wouldn’t be the first time in recent history, and I for one would not be surprised.

Jack McClatchy, FCRH ’21, is a political science major from Wayne, Pennsylvania.